Blinded But Loved
by brokenbruises
Summary: She doesn't speak much and neither can she see much. She moves silently with the wind and heals people in the breeze. She doesn't need the recognition of the whole shinobi world, she just needs his. But she doesn't know that he has changed and that he isn't the same. Cursed to be in the same team as him, she starts to discover a new side of him, the one she didn't know yet.
1. Chapter 1

Hi guys,

Thanks for clicking onto **Blinded But Loved.** This is my first Naruto fanfic so I hope you guys will support me! Just to give you guys the heads up, the first part of this chapter is in Etsuko's first person tone. But it's only for this chapter so the subsequent chapters will all be third person all the way :)

enjoy!

* * *

_The Fourth Great Shinobi War has finally passed. So many lives have been lost in the process, but some, were recovered. Not all though. My father, for one, had died. But he was not given the chance to live again. Unlike that person. It's no surprise, actually. Since only the closer friends of Naruto Uzumaki and some villagers got revived before Obito reached his limit, and was broken off from his soul. I don't know much about what happened with the 'revival' thing, but I know, according to the Fifth Hokage, that we are all indebted to the blonde Uzumaki._

_They had gotten Obito to raise the dead, as Nagato had done before. Only this time, there were just too many. Too many blood shed and too many lives that had vanished. So only those who were dearer to Naruto Uzumaki's heart were revived first. And the rest of the shinobi and villagers were brought back to life accordingly. And then Obito Uchiha snapped, the strain disconnecting him from his chakra roots. The ten-tails released and dispersed into the individual tailed beast, and they were once again, resealed in the respective bodies of the Jinchurriki._

_I had fought in the war too. Though I may be blind in one eye, I am in the ANBU. I had served Lord Danzo for a period of time before he was killed by Sasuke Uchiha, and then subsequently I served under Lady Tsunade. I am grateful that she is alive for I cannot imagine myself under that Uzumaki kid yet._

_I am going to start anew in this village. A new boss, a new environment, a new set of missions. I swear to give it my all. All for this village. That, will always be my first priority as an ANBU of Konoha._

* * *

"Alright, good job Etsuko. Thank you for your hard work, you may have the next few days off." Lady Tsunade told the ANBU officer in front of her.

The girl simply nodded as she took her leave.

"Same as always, huh? She doesn't even say a word. Such a shame, and she's so young as well, almost as young as Naruto right?"

"Yes, I think I read in her file before that she belonged to the batch that graduated with Neji and Lee. She was Genin for a period of time before she was taken in by Danzo. I don't think she interacted much with those her age." Shizune replied while putting TonTon down.

"I see. That means we have to force interaction to her doorstep." Tsunade nodded, smiling at the plan she had formed inside her head.

* * *

Etsuko Shiranui whizzed past the streets of Konoha. She wanted to get away quickly from all the noise on the street. It would be best if she were to not meet anyone she knew right now. Her mask was down, which revealed her exhausted face. Her symmetrical eyes hid the fact that her left eye was locked away from vision. Her eyes had a shine in them, the shine which told of the determination within her to fight for the village. It wasn't abnormal though, for she was a war hero. Although not as famous as Naruto Uzumaki or Sasuke Uchiha, she had gone through the pains of fighting against the Akatsuki and Obito, and she had came out of the war alive.

As she entered her estate, she put her ANBU mask onto her desk, as she did with her twin sword blades that was originally tucked nicely at her waist. After removing her ANBU uniform, she jumped into the bath, where she had decided to soak for at least longer than usual to ease her fatigue. Her waist long hazel-brown hair was allowed to float about on the surface of the water as she leaned back on the tub to rest.

The mission she had today was normal, boring, the usual. But she had taken it seriously as she had with all the missions she was given. The enemy was expected to be killed, like always. For they were ANBU. ANBU officers weren't meant to fail missions. High-ranked missions were given to them because they were supposed to accomplish it well.

Thinking that she had soaked for long enough, she got up and grabbed her towel to dry herself. She looked in the mirror and her eyes fell on to the light pink scar that was on her chest, near to her left shoulder. It was a deep wound, she remembered. And that was from so long ago, on her joint mission as a Genin with Neji Hyuuga's team. The arrogant boy had told her that the ninja world had no place for someone who couldn't see out of her left eye. And all was said because she had lowered her guard and allowed the enemy to launch an attack on her, on her blind spot where she couldn't see.

Not long after, Danzo Shimura had taken her in as a Root Member, and she progressively made her way to ANBU. The whole of the Konoha shinobi had hated Danzo, for what he had done to the village. She didn't particularly hate him, she just thought that Konoha would be better off without him. Oh, but she was thankful to him. For he had trained the living hell out of her to be what she was today. Even with her disability to see with both eyes, he had made her to be what she was today; more sensitive, more skilled and definitely, more useful to Konoha.

Etsuko put on her night clothes and hung her towel over her head as she left her bathroom. She heard the door open, which meant that her brother was home. Things were still awkward with her brother. They had only found each other again a little before the war started. And both of them had changed so, so much.

She had been close to her brother when she was younger, even with the age difference of eight. They were close all the way till the time where she had been taken away by Danzo. And then they were separated. She was separated from her father too of course, but she was much closer to her brother. So her heart broke that day and now it was still in the process of healing itself.

"Etsuko, are you really not going to head out and socialize?" Genma asked.

She shook her head as she smiled at him, her way of welcoming him home. Even at home, Etsuko hardly spoke and Genma had learnt to accept that. He knew that his radiant, bubbly little sister was gone when she was taken away from Danzo. She was a really insecure girl, especially with her visual impairment. Still, he made an effort to talk to her every time he got the chance even if it felt a bit awkward.

"You really need to get yourself out there, go make some friends for once! Naruto, Shikamaru.. they are all good people and you need to have people like that in your life, you can't just depend on me all the time." Genma shouted through the door of his room as he changed into more comfortable clothing. Tonight, he was going to meet Kotetsu and Izumo for a drink tonight. They hadn't met in a while and it was a good time to do some catching up.

Etsuko smiled at him again and shook her head once more. She raised her hand to wave her brother goodbye before she returned to her bed and turned in for the night.

"I really need to speak to Lady Tsunade about this. I can't bring home anyone at this rate." Genma laughed to himself as he left the house.

* * *

Etsuko got out of her bed wide awake as her alarm sounded. She threw on a familiar pair of training tights that reached till her knees and a green sleeveless hoodie that was fully zipped up. As usual, she wore her headband around her neck. Her headband was secured with a brown cloth which matched her top. She picked up her twin blades and slid and secured them by her waist. After strapping on her pouch filled with kunai and shuriken, she bolted out of her house, not caring about her brother sprawled on the floor, getting over the hangover which was a result of drinking too much the night before.

She scaled through the streets and houses until she reached the training grounds. She enjoyed the greenery very much because it calmed her. She had been cooped up in Danzo's underground training hall for too long that she had almost forgotten what nature was like. The trees, the flowers, the grass, they were all things that helped her confirm her existence. They were the things that was always there wherever one may go, even in the Sand Village. So she loved the green and she loved green things as well. Thankfully, her chakra affinity was not something that would destroy them, like fire or earth.

Yes, her chakra nature was wind and water. Mostly wind though. She had only discovered that she had a tiny bit of affinity with water just awhile back. She decided that it was not that useful and stopped developing her water jutsus after learning the basic ones. Etsuko gave her time and concentration to her wind nature. She knew how to perform all the simple and basic wind jutsus and like Asuma Sarutobi, she could enhance her twin sword blades to increase its lethality. She was still working on her sword skills though, she needed to perfect them as she was not well versed in taijutsu. And hardly anyone could teach her to use her swords to her best ability as the only one who could teach her was dead.

Which was why she came here today. To train herself so that she would be more useful in the next war, if there would be any. From afar, she could sense a couple of ninja training with each other, and she decided that it would be best to go further off so that she wouldn't interrupt them. Her heightened sensitivity towards chakra, as well as smelling and hearing, was all due to her blindness in her left eye. Not being able to see helped her develop a sharp sense of hearing and she could also detect chakra from afar. These were the abilities that she depended upon to survive in the tracking unit in ANBU.

When Etsuko decided that she had moved far away enough, she drew her two swords and began to expand her chakra. She closed her eyes and focused to even out the chakra on her blade. When she could feel that it was sharp enough and balanced enough, she flicked her eyes open and jumped into the air. In mid air, she swung both her arms to direct the blade onto the oak trees in front of her. Her twin blades slashed through the wood smoothly. Without stopping, she tossed her two blades up in the air and performed her katas for her next jutsu.

"Wind Style: Whispering Silencers." She activated in her mind.

As her jutsu activated, she caught her twin blades and did the same motion of performing a forward slash. Her jutsu had slayed many trees, causing them to topple over each other.

"Perfect," she thought, "Now the carpenters need not find people to chop their wood for them."

"Oh my goodness, that freaking hurt!" Etsuko heard a girl yell from not-very far off.

Etsuko quickly deactivated her jutsu and made her way towards where she heard the sound from. She had screwed up again. What she wanted to do, was learn to control her jutsu, particularly this one where it was long ranged and could lead to devastating results if she was not careful with her control.

"Ten-ten, are you alright?"

She froze in her tracks. Uh-oh, it just had to be that team. If Ten-ten was here, that would mean that he was here. And he was the last person she wanted to see. Everyone said that he had changed, but she still couldn't get over what he had said because his words, had broken her and at the same time, had driven her to her knees to train even harder to make up for her disability.

Etsuko walked towards Ten-ten, who was leaning against a tree, breathing hard. Apparently, she had been caught in Etsuko's jutsu when she was retrieving her weapons.

I should have looked to see if anyone was there first before doing it, Etsuko mentally slapped herself. Despite not being someone with many words, Etsuko was really one who talked more to herself in her head. Now I have to apologize, she sighed inwardly.

"I'm sorry. My jutsu um, got out of hand. It's my fault, I'm really sorry." She bowed to apologise before walking over to Ten-ten. Etsuko placed her palms over Ten-ten's injured arm and allowed the green chakra to form before slowly applying it to Ten-ten's wound.

"Wait, who are you?" Lee questioned.

"She's in the ANBU like Neji. If I'm not wrong, she's from the tracking unit. Right, Etsuko?" Guy smiled his signature teeth-showing grin, proud that he managed to remember someone. It seemed that after his encounter with Kisama Hoshikage, he had started to make an effort in remembering people's names. He sure didn't want to get chased around by a shark just because their names had slipped off his mind.

Etsuko didn't say anything but simply nodded in reply. She wanted to heal Ten-ten quickly and get away before they started asking her to eat lunch with them or whatever people who socialised did.

"Strange, I'm in the tracking unit as well, but I guess I'll be seeing you around soon."

Etsuko, once again in her mind, choked. So Neji thought that she was a new member? Well then he had something coming for him because she had been in ANBU for almost 7 years. Well, not exactly, but Root was counted as ANBU too.

As the green soft chakra from Etsuko's hands faded, she got to her feet and extended a hand to help Ten-ten up. She quickly excused herself and bowed in apology one more time before making her way back to her home.

"She sure is interesting." Neji smirked as their team headed off for their lunch break.

* * *

the next chapter will contain more of Neji, I promise.

In the mean time, please leave a review to tell me what you guys think of this chapter!

thanks! :)


	2. Chapter 2

"Etsuko, this is Neji Hyuuga, I am sure that you have met him a couple times during the Great Shinobi War. He is relatively new to the ANBU tracking unit. Neji is the same age as you are, which is why I put you two together on the same team." Tsunade paused, waiting for a reaction from Etsuko. When none came, she continued, "This mission involves taking out a particular group of rebels that are taking advantage of the peace right now. You and Neji will be working with another team from the assault unit. They have already been briefed and are at the front gate waiting for you two. I have assigned you two your usual code names so be sure to get used to calling and responding to that."

"Alright, I understand, Lady Tsunade." Neji bowed respectfully towards the Hokage before taking the mission scroll and leaving with Etsuko.

As the Hokage had said, there were indeed two ANBU officers standing by the gate, waiting for them to arrive. With their ANBU masks on, Etsuko could hardly recognize the two team members from the assault unit but when she looked closely through her mask, she noticed that one of them was wearing a dark blue bandana and instantly knew at once that her brother was on the team with her. Trust the Hokage to come up with such an arrangement. She wondered if Tsunade knew that she and Neji had an undesirable exchange in the past.

In all honesty, Etsuko was not that thrilled to be on the same team as Neji. She knew that she was not one who could perform astounding jutsus that left her team mates speechless at her technique, so she wondered if Neji would mock her like he had done so previously. The fact that she was not proficient in ninjustu that dealt with damage was one of the reasons why she requested to be placed in the tracking unit. And now, she had to deal with Neji, who was also placed in the tracking unit due to his Byakugan.

"Alright, so Midori (Etsuko) and Yagami (Neji), you two will infiltrate the hideout from behind and we will launch an attack from the front. Everyone got it?" They nodded. "Then let's go." Genma told them.

* * *

The journey was quiet, with no conversation held between the officers, for the sake of not giving away their positions. This was another reason why Etsuko loved the ANBU department. She didn't need to speak much to get things down. Unlike in a team which she had been in during her Genin days, ANBU officers did not bicker with one another, they just focused on what needed to be done and they did as they were told or instructed.

Etsuko was up in front while Neji was at the back. The two from the tracking unit had a vital role in keeping a lookout for enemy ninja that might be following them from behind or planning to launch an attack from the front. This was not exactly the perfect formation since Etsuko was visually impaired in her left eye, but nevertheless, she did a good job by infusing her chakra in the wind to detect any nearby enemy in front. But it wasn't like she could handle the job better if she was to track from behind.

Out of the four ANBU officers, Neji was the only one unaware of Etsuko's disability because 1. Etsuko felt no need to speak of such a trivial matter 2. She moved, jumped and ran as though she had both eyes with a 2:2 vision. Besides, she didn't want to be reminded or remind Neji about what he had said that time those so many years ago.

As they approached the border of the Fire country, night began to fall and the team decided to rest up near a stream so that they could clean up as well. It was decided that each of them would take turns to guard the area in case of enemy attack. As the overall in charge of the team, Genma scheduled Etsuko on the first shift, Neji on the next shift, Aka (a code name) on the third shift and himself on the last shift. He thought that it would be better if he assumed the responsibility of waking all of them up when it was time to move out.

Etsuko felt that the arrangement was rather biased towards her since she would get the most undisturbed sleep out of the four of them, but she didn't want to speak so she said nothing and went off to the stream to drink up and wash up. She took off her ANBU mask and placed it at her side before splashing the cool water onto her face. She felt refreshed and glad for the time of rest. It was common for her to go on extended missions that could last throughout a week. But usually, she wasn't placed on teams that were meant to take out enemy units. The Hokage used her more for locating enemy bases or taking out singular ninjas that posed a threat to Konoha.

Of course, her abilities didn't actually made her very ANBU. She was in there in the first place because she was under Danzo. And most of the people under Danzo were supposedly the highly-skilled people. The reason why Danzo had chosen her was for an entirely different reason.

She was a healer, and a bloody good one. When she was a kid at the Academy, she had been praised to the heavens for her excellent chakra control. Her father had seen that in her and brought her to their neighbor for medical ninjutsu training. Etsuko had picked up the skills quickly, although most of them were only perfected and improved when she underwent the strict and brutal Danzo training. Danzo had quickly singled her out as a special kid when she was a Genin. He had learnt through medical profiles about her blindness in her left eye and he had used that information to his favor.

Etsuko was threatened or rather, forced to join Danzo and his group. She was told that if she refused, they would cause her right eye to go blind as well. She was only eleven back then so she was scared, and she had agreed to leave willingly without telling Genma or her father.

When Etsuko decided that she was done washing up, she headed back to where the others were. Aka had just started a campfire by activating his fire jutsu and Genma was already lying on the ground. She looked around, wondering where was the Hyuuga kid. She turned back, and noticed that he had also gone along to wash up when she did, but she wasn't able to see him as he stood further away from her on her left.

"So you really are the ninja that my group and I encountered yesterday."

Etsuko didn't reply, as usual, and just looked at him.

"I recognized the two swords that you were carrying with you." Neji added for her benefit.

She still didn't open her mouth to reply, but simply walked away, showing that she had clearly no interest in a conversation.

_What does he want? He better not talk or speak to me again._

* * *

Etsuko leaned against the tree as she watched the area. She had activated her 'Wind Style: Night Breeze' jutsu to pick up any nearby enemy ninja as well as to provide the team with a cool and calming breeze to sleep in. It would have been a daunting task for any other ninja to release a steady flow of chakra throughout a large area, but for someone like Etsuko who never really needed to expend her chakra in battle because she couldn't fight very well, it was as easy as breathing in and out, just that prolonged periods did put a strain in her body.

She looked at the night sky, which was clear. This meant that it the tides of the mission were in their favor if they could reach the enemy base by late morning the next day since it wasn't going to rain any time soon. Etsuko had lived a long time cooped up in Danzo's underground territory that she hardly got to admire the sky. When she was finally let out, she took every chance in the night to stare at the clouds until she eventually did fall asleep. In this short period of time, she had found that there was a connection between the clearness of the night sky and the weather the next morning. If it was filled with clouds, chances would be that there would be a heavy downpour the next day. And since the night sky was almost cloudless, Etsuko reasoned that it would be sunny and bright, at least till noon time. That was a plus for their team since Aka and Genma's chakra nature were fire.

Etsuko grabbed onto her swords tightly as she leaped from the tree to the ground. Her shift was already over and it was time to get some rest. She moved over to where Neji was and debated for a moment to see if she should wake him up or wait till he woke by himself. Besides, both situations would still be rather awkward for her since she had rudely ignored him earlier. _So this is what happens when you let your dislike for someone get the better of you._

Looking at the man who was sound asleep in front of her, she decided that it would be easier if she just woke him up because 1. It would clear the misunderstanding between the two of them that she was rude and that she hated him. Although it was kind of true for the latter, and 2. He would wake up.

So Etsuko reached her hand out and gave a gentle tap on Neji's arm, in hopes that he would quickly awake and take over her as a watch guard, which he did. The sudden movement of Neji springing to life from his sleepy state gave Etsuko quite a shock, although she didn't show it. Instead, she looked at him and pointed to her wrist. Even though there was no watch there, it simply told him that it was time for his duty. So Neji nodded and went on stand by while Etsuko slowly laid on the sandy ground and allowed her fatigue and the darkness to overwhelm her.

* * *

"Okay everyone, it's time to move out." Genma's voice called out, causing Etsuko to rise from her sleep. It was a good one though, at least she didn't have those dreams this time. Those dreams, which were part of her life, the memories, which haunted her till today.

Etsuko strapped on her two swords onto her waist and gave a nod to her brother, indicating that she was ready and set to go. When everyone had slipped on their ANBU masks, the team set out, with the same formation as they had the day before.

Their target was to reach the enemy base by mid-morning so that they could quickly wipe out the rebel group and head back to Konoha by evening without having to stop or rest. Sleeping on the cold hard ground wasn't something the team particularly liked, as others would have as well, they preferred sleeping in the comforts of their own home, even if they were called out in the middle of the night.

Realising that they were nearing the enemy hideout, Etsuko raised her hand to signal her companions to stop. They all landed and stood on the same tree and waited while Neji scanned the whole layout with his Byakugan. When it was made known that there were fourteen ninjas in the area, they all got into their positions as planned in the earlier part of the mission.

As they all got ready to commence their attack, Etsuko performed her katas to activate her wind tracking jutsu. It was a little bit like her Night Breeze jutsu but it was more for tracking the movements of any ninja that were trying to flee. From the start, she wasn't really part of the attacking plan. Her job, as usual, was to keep an eye on the ninja and made sure none of them got away. She was hardly part of the action, but she was completely fine with just being a watcher and healer.

Neji and Etsuko waited patiently for Genma's signal before they started moving out. The signal was the fireball jutsu that would ignite the left part of enemy base into flames. The two split up to enter from different sides, with Etsuko on the left and Neji on the right. It was a good plan though, since she would be travelling towards the right and she couldn't see what was going on at the left.

As they ran into the base, Etsuko unsheathed her swords, ready to take down anyone who would stand in her way. Not far off, she could see the enemy ninja running towards the front part of the area to help his people out. She caught on that and quickly appeared behind him, with her sword against his throat. Without waiting for him to respond, she slit off his throat, seperating his head from his body. She didn't even wait to see the head roll about on a floor before taking off to find the other ninja.

To her disappointment, or maybe to her delight as well, the other three ninjas of her team had already taken care of the remaining enemy shinobi. She was a little depressed though, since she only managed to kill only one of the ninja. So she did the only thing she could do, she checked her team mates for any wounds or injuries that they might have gotten. Fortunately, the three of them only had small scratches and cuts that were probably, in Etsuko's opinion, not exactly painful or serious in any way. Deciding that she didn't really want to go place her hand on all three smelly ANBUs, she did her hand signs and called in her head, "Wind Style: Healing Gust."

True to its name, the gust of wind ran the four of them quickly and sealed and healed any scratches or cuts that they may have had. Genma gave her a slight nod, in appreciation for her technique.

"Good job, all of you. Let us return." Genma told them, before sealing all the dead enemy ninja bodies in a scroll. All of them picked up the pace and headed back towards their own village.

* * *

"Excellent work. As usual, a two or three day break before you will be called back for duty." The Hokage said to the team as they came in with their report. "Neji and Genma, stay behind. I have something I need to talk to the two of you about. The rest of you, you may take your leave."

As Etsuko and Aka left the Hokage office, Tsunade turned to the two men in front of her. "So, how's the progress?"

"I am sorry, Lady Tsunade. But I am afraid that it'll take more than a mission to get her to speak to me. I did try to talk to her but it seems she still has a deep sense of animosity towards me." Neji reported.

"Well, you can't blame her. Weren't you the one who told her all that stuff when you guys were younger?" Genma stated.

"That is true, however, she does not realize that I am different from the person I was before. I am afraid if she does not see that I have changed, it will be a daunting task to get her to open up to those around my age."

"So what do you suggest?" The Hokage asked. "Surely there must be some way to break that ice around her. She is a great asset to the Leaf, especially the medical unit, so it would be a shame to see her end up alone and cold."

"Maybe you could send her on missions with Team Guy. I mean, Neji, Tenten and Lee are all around the same age as my sister right? It shouldn't be a problem I believe." Genma suggested.

"Then that's what we're going to do. Neji, get your team ready for the next few days, your team needs to warm up to her."

* * *

**Okay, this chapter isn't really that all action-packed. But that's not what I'm really aiming for so I hope you guys understand! Hopefully you guys get where I'm trying to bring this story to. I promise I'll try to make it better!  
**

**do tell me what you think, and don't be worried to voice out anything you're not happy with!**

**thanks for reading! :)**


	3. Chapter 3

"Why do we even need another team-mate? Aren't we all fine on our own?" Ten-ten wondered out loud.

"An additional team-mate will allow us to make more memories, Ten-ten! It will make our youth much more fulfilling!" Lee roared in reply to Ten-ten's comment.

"But from what I hear, she has her mouth clamped up. They all say that she's as quiet as a mouse. Maybe a mouse might be even noisier than her I hear. She doesn't even-"

"This is Etsuko Shiranui. She will be joining our team from now onwards." Neji announced to the group as he walked towards them with Etsuko.

"Alright Etsuko, how about we do a round of introduction? I'm sure we will get to know you better if you tell us about yourself." Guy suggested with his wide shining grin.

Etsuko gave a sharp gasp and quickly shook her head. That was why she hated teams. You have to 'get to know each other to succeed'. This sort of mindset simply didn't work with her because she hated working in teams. And hence, having her on a team would only mark the team to be doomed and headed for failure.

And that was what she told Lady Tsunade, well, she didn't exactly tell her but she wrote her thoughts down and passed the paper to the Hokage. Except the Hokage ignored her and tossed that paper to the bin. Her decision, after all, was final and Etsuko simply had to accept that.

There were a thousand reasons why she didn't quite want to join a team, particularly this team. And of which number 1 to number 999 were attributed to the reasons why she disliked and hated Neji. The last reason was simply because she would be part of a team with weird members like Lee and Guy.

"Oh hey wait,.aren't you the one who healed me yesterday? I propose we all have a sparring match!" Ten-ten cheered.

"Oh Ten-ten, you want to go up against an ANBU member? Feisty! And yes that sounds like a good round-up, alright Ten-ten and Etsuko, take it away!" Guy screamed.

Immediately, Etsuko shot Neji a look, a look which he obviously did not understand because he added on to his team mate's excitement by saying, "This will be interesting." Inwardly, Etsuko panicked, for she wasn't sure what to do if they found out who she was. But she really didn't want to lose her face once again in front of the same crowd by losing this 'match'. So she breathed in and whipped out her two blades.

She needed to end this match as quickly as she could since any minor slip up might cause her identity to come spilling out like an overturned jar of milk. As Ten-ten threw her weapons at her, Etsuko spun her blades to form a whirlwind, allowing the swirl of air to deflect the attacks thrown in her way. Without missing a beat, she threw a kunai tagged with a paper bomb into Ten-ten's way, camouflaging it within the shurikens and kunai that Etsuko had deflected away. While Ten-ten was jumping away from the danger, Etsuko performed her jutsu, Wind Style: Spiral Concoction.

Upon activation, a rapidly spinning twister rose below Etsuko's feet and arose to form a protective wind barrier surrounding her. The said 'typhoon' blew her off her feet and she was in mid-air, clothed with the intimidating twister. As Etsuko opened her eyes, she could see that Ten-ten was confused and albeit afraid of the twister which she had just created. She looked on as Ten-ten, whilst doubtful, threw a string of weapons at Etsuko's wind barrier, which then sent them flying back towards the bun-haired girl.

Etsuko sighed and decided to hurry up and end the match. So, she raised her two arms and held her swords tight, "Wind Style: Cylone Dash." she called in her head. Etsuko swung her arms down to clash her two blades, which started to form a multi-layer disc that was spinning as quickly as its name suggested. When the disc had fully formed, Etsuko pretended to swing her attack right at Ten-ten. Just as Ten-ten was waiting to dodge the attack, Etsuko disappeared to go behind Ten-ten's before releasing the devastating slice of wind.

As the Cyclone Dash hit Ten-ten, she was knocked clean on the ground. That was when Etsuko broke out of her trance, realising that this was meant to be 'a spar with friends' and not 'a battle to the death' like those she had back then under Danzo. She noticed that the other three men on the team were taken aback by what happened and inwardly she was also afraid. After all, dealing a death-blow to a team mate wasn't exactly the way to start a team relationship. Deciding that standing there awkwardly wasn't going to be of much help to the situation, Etsuko moved over to Ten-ten, who was still unconscious from the impact from falling to the ground as well as Etsuko's Cyclone Dash.

Under the eyes of the people she was going to work with for the next few months, Etsuko removed her gloves and started healing the poor girl in front of her.

* * *

As Ten-ten arose from her knock out, she looked around her and remembered where she was and what happened. And then she looked at the person sitting next to her and said, "Oh my god you really can pull some punches if you want to. You not only injured me once, but twice! How many times do you want to kill me!"

"Ten-ten, relax! Etsuko didn't do it on purpose." Guy told her.

"She tried to kill me!" Ten-ten yelled and then yelled again due to the pain of speaking too loudly.

Etsuko got up, took her gloves and as quiet and shy as she was, she knew she had to say something. So she told them what she had been telling people since she was born, "I'm sorry." and then she walked off to another direction.

She knew it wasn't meant to be like that. She didn't 'almost-killed' Ten-ten on purpose. It was part of her, that carnal instinct to annihilate any threat that stood in her way, it was within her, heck, it was her. When she was training under Danzo, she was always getting beaten up for being too easy on her enemies and she was always apologizing. She was sorry for many things, all the times she didn't do well and all the times she failed to carry out what she was told.

Truly she knew that Danzo's training and the 'normal-ninja' method were world's apart. Danzo didn't care for what Etsuko felt, physically or emotionally. All he did care about was whether Etsuko could perfect her healing and wind jutsus. She remembered all the times she was locked up in a room, chained and whipped till she agreed to continue on with her training. When it didn't work, Danzo would threaten to kill of her family, which would always work against her. However, despite all that, even with all the truth placed in front of her eyes, she was still glad that she could finally be useful.

In her days as a child, she knew that her parents weren't exactly thrilled to have a kid that was blind in one eye, and she would always apologize to them for that. When she tripped and fell onto the floor, her parents would always reprimand her and she always had to say that she was sorry.

For as short as Etsuko had lived so far, she had been apologizing her whole life and truthfully, she didn't know what to feel. And since she was one who was no where near good with words, she had no idea how to tell somehow or even ask for advice.

But now, that didn't matter since she had no one right now. Her new team mates didn't count, at least she knew she wouldn't like it if someone nearly killed a friend on her team. Certainly she wouldn't like the person enough to accept him or her as a team-mate.

* * *

"Etsuko! Neji's looking for you!" Genma called through the hall.

Etsuko shot up from her bed, wondering why on earth would the almighty Neji Hyuuga come finding her at her home. She stood in front of her bedroom door, debating silently if she should get out. But if she pretended that she wasn't home, he would be able to see through her with his Byakugan and that would make things even worse. Even if she wasn't going to do any speaking, she grabbed a hoodie and threw it over her top to hide the creases on her top formed when she was lying in bed.

She walked to the living room and there he was. Genma had casually invited the person who he knew she detested to sit in her living room. Etsuko mentally made a note to throttle her brother later as she strode in to take the furthest seat away from Neji. Not knowing what to do, she simply stared at the stranger in her house.

"Ten-ten was overboard today, I'm sorry. She has been over-reacting about every single thing since well, since I've known her. I'm sure you know."

The last bit of what Neji said caught her attention. Did that mean that Neji already knew who she was?

"Lady Tsunade and I told him about you." Genma informed her while he sipped his beer from the beer can.

Etsuko froze and her eyes widened. She glared at her brother with a look that said "I'm going to hate you." while he replied by shrugging his shoulders, saying, "Thought it'd be good for him to know. Don't worry, the rest of them don't know yet."

"Either way, Ten-ten wants me to tell you that she's sorry and that she'll like it if you come back tomorrow and train with us again. Lee said that he wanted to get to know you better although I'd advise you to stay away."

Without saying a word, Etsuko nodded in reply. She didn't exactly care to know what Ten-ten and Lee thought of her, in fact, she was more anxious to know if Neji remembered what he had told her when they were Genin. She was more curious to find out if that arrogant brat had any either how he had hurt her so much.

"Well, that's all I came here to say. I do have something I need to speak to you about, but I believe that that can wait till tomorrow. I hope you aren't traumatized by today's events and if you are, I'm sorry on their behalf. I'll see you tomorrow then? I'm leaving Genma."

"Aww so soon? I'll catch up with you some time Neji." Genma replied.

"Anytime." The Hyuuga boy replied as he left the Shiranui household.

"See? He ain't that bad after all." Genma grinned at his sister as she returned back to her room.

* * *

**Sorry for not updating! I'm almost done with my exams so I had a chance to do up a chapter for this story! I hope I didn't lose any of you guys due to the lack of updates. Anyway, I'm not sure how Neji is portrayed in this story, I sure do hope that he isn't out of character! **

**thanks for reading this! :')  
**


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